[AP] What’s behind North Korea’s COVID-19 admission?

LINK: https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-seoul-south-korea-north-8d68bcdc4ee1669185ffb8fa2f4c2460

North Korea’s secretive nature makes it virtually impossible to figure out the true scale of its outbreak and how it will develop.

Many North Koreans have adjusted to living with a troubled medical system and buying medicine privately, according to Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea.

While North Korea cannot avoid mass infections, Ahn said it will likely avoid “a catastrophic” death toll like the hundreds of thousands of deaths reported during a mid-1990s famine.

Ahn said the toughened anti-virus steps won’t be much different from previous curbs and that it’s mostly rhetoric meant to press a public tired of long-running pandemic restrictions to keep their vigilance amid surging cases in neighboring China.